Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. The corpses had been like fishbones stuck down his throat. They had caused him enough stress in an hour to last a lifetime.
Zavier found that he was still unable to stop his body from trembling. It was already the second time that he had died.
One thing that he learned after experiencing death twice, a rare feat one might say, was that there was no getting used to it.
Obviously getting used to it was different when the life at stake was not your own but somebody else's. It was easy to watch someone else die but it was not easy to cope with your own.
He was afraid, terribly afraid of dying again. More than that, he was afraid of not living up to his true potential after all that the cosmic consciousness had done for him.
It would have been pathetic for him to die in the hands of his enemies before he got to enjoy the compensation he had received for his miserable past life.
He had grown to hate death. He didn't want to experience it anymore.
At the same time, he came to understand how dangerous living in another world without much knowledge could be. As it was, he would definitely die worrying when an attacker would come for his life.
No one would want to live like that, constantly in a state of alert against enemies that left no trace and had no name. It wouldn't take long for invisible enemies to turn into mental demons that would then do nothing but haunt.
As it was, Zavier was either going to die trying to find his enemies recklessly or he was going to worry himself to death wondering about their whereabouts and their next plan of action. Obviously, this couldn't be the solution.
"System, is there a way for me to know when my enemies are close by. Is there a spell that can do that? Or do I have to wait for my enemies to strike the next time?"
Zavier finally revealed his worries to the trustworthy multi-system.
[Such a spell would have to focus on multiple targets in an ever-changing area beside the user. It is impossible.]
"WHAT? Even you have no solution, what am I supposed to do then? Wait for my death?"
[User is jumping to conclusions. I didn't say that there was no solution, I said that a spell was not the solution you seek.]
Zavier cursed out loud. He knew the system was somehow laughing at him, he had caught the expression between its words.
[The solution to the user's problem is the activation of the perception system. This system would enable the user to be more aware of your surroundings, it would cover up all your blind spots. Nothing would be hidden from the user in a certain space surrounding the user. It will also give you certain insight into what the target is thinking at the moment.]
Zavier was so satisfied with the solution that he forgot how insolent the system had been earlier.
"System, activate the perception system for me."
[Perception system has been successfully activated.]
[User is advised to not activate any more systems. User has reached his limit.]
[User has learned Time Space Eye (Lv 1).]
[User can see through all objects within an area of 100 metres. His gaze can penetrate through any obstacle within the range. There will be no blind spots.
User's vision will encompass all 360 degrees around him. Nothing will remain hidden under his gaze.
User can sense the subtle expressions on the faces of all individuals and can gain insights into their minds, allowing him to determine their emotions, feelings and their intentions with a high probability.
By noticing the subtlest of movements of each body part and the changes in micro-expressions of the individuals, user will be able to predict their next course of action.]
[Conditions of use: Area within 100 metres surrounding the user.]
[Skill proficiency is currently 0.01%]
[Range and the probability of successfully determining the target's course of action will increase with increase in skill proficiency.]
[Limitations: The skill will not be effective if the target has put up a mental or spiritual barrier that is stronger than the user's perception.]
Zavier knew that something like this was bound to happen. Otherwise, the perception ability would have been too strong, game-breaking possibly.
Zavier now had a system to save himself from the sudden and unexpected attacks of his unknown enemy so he could focus on making himself stronger to seek out those hiding in the shadows and taking an aim at him.
He now had four systems at the same time and it was getting a little difficult for him to keep track of all the system messages he had been receiving on a daily basis.
After getting a break from all the worrying, the first thing he did was to organize all the data in his mind and make himself familiar with his own strengths and weaknesses that he had never had bothered to learn before due to his overconfidence in himself and the multi-system.
Spending some time working on himself also cleared his mind some more which allowed him to see things more clearly. Zavier was now more than ever clear about the goal that he was supposed to be working towards; increasing his own strength on an urgent basis.
To keep practicing all the systems that he had activated, he had to have some additional clones. Counting the recently deceased one, Zavier needed three more clones to keep up with his needs.
"System, I want to create three more clones of myself."
[Cloning of the user was successfully completed.]
Three new Zaviers popped out in front of him, simultaneously appeared out of thin air as soon as the message of the skill completion showed up on the display screen.
Zavier assigned the clones with their respective systems to get them to practice the systems assigned to them. The sooner they increased their abilities, the stronger will be the main body.
So many copies of oneself could get difficult to handle at some point. Zavier too had started to see the elephant in the room. So many Zaviers would be running around in the world if he maintained the status quo.
Therefore, he had to come up with a system to make sure that no one would notice that the clones were the same as him even if they happened to see them at their places of practice.
This was easy enough for him. He just had to disguise them so that nobody would be able to recognize them.
The next step was to determine where each of them would hide just like the clone practicing the Mesmer system was still hiding in the closet in his room.
Even that was not naturally a permanent solution. He didn't know how long that fa?ade could last considering the closet ghosts are bound to come out at some point.
But for emergencies, he had to make sure that the clone in the closet maintained his place. Currently it was the strongest among all the clones that he had. He had to keep it there for the protection of his family in case another situation like today repeated itself.
The other three he decidedly deployed in the vicinity of his home so that they could form a perimeter around the house. This way they could be called back whenever he needed them without any hassle.
He chose areas with less traffic of people. They were mostly abandoned places that no one ever visited. Of course, the clone practicing the Necromancer system was sent to an ancient graveyard that dated back to thousands of years. This would give him enough corpses to practice his skills for a lifetime. There was no place else that was as perfect for him as this one.
The one with the perception system was an exception to the 'no people in the vicinity' rule. That clone had to be able to sense people in order to develop and therefore could never practice in the wild as effectively. Since Zavier wanted urgent results, he couldn't just harm the potential of his clone by assigning him to an abandoned place.
Instead, he sent the clone to the most crowded place in the city, the clock tower. The clock tower was high enough for no one to ever venture to the top and was right in the middle of the city centre, crowded with all types of people throughout the day. The clone was heavily disguised before being sent off. It infiltrated the clock tower and stayed there amidst the bustling city, watching over the people of the city like an eye in the sky.
Mage was sent over to the same woods the previous clone had been practicing in.
There was another precaution that Zavier put in place before sending them all off. He changed the voices of all the clones in coordination with the multi-system, so that not one of the clones sounded the same as him.
They were either shrill voices with high pitch and volume or slightly hoarse voices that were distinguishable from among the crowd. All of them left lasting impressions on whoever heard them.
This way, any one who came in to contact with them would know that they couldn't be Zavier just based on their voice.
When he was done with all his serious business, it was already deep into the night and Zavier was not able to tone down his fatigue any longer. It was evident how much of a toll the earlier healing and the later clone manipulation had taken on him.
He unlocked the door that he had previously locked to prevent anyone from intruding on his one-man party, blew off the candles and fell down on his bed face first like the dead.
He had barely gotten some shut eye before he was interrupted once again by a knock on the door.